A red, red rose

Chapter 17

Steve was sat up against a tree waiting for one of the women in front of him to regain consciousness. He had taken off his hoodie and wrapped it around the brunette's leg, trying to slow the bleeding down. She had a big gash in her eyebrow that would likely need stitches, and it had bled down her face, covering the left side with blood. 

After around 15 minutes Natasha started to stir. She opened her eyes and groaned, "I'm never going anywhere with you again." The redhead sat up and leaned against the tree opposite Steve.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked Nat as she checked for sprained or broken bones.

"Nothing seriously damaged. Just a few scrapes, bruises and a massive headache." Once Natasha had fully come out of her dazed state she noticed an unconscious Charlie lying on the ground. "Oh my God, Charlie!" Natasha crawled over to the woman and assessed her injuries. Her eyes started to water as she took in the situation that her friend was in. "We need to get her to a hospital." 

"We can't. HYDRA would be looking for us there." Steve still couldn't believe that HYDRA had been growing right under his nose and he didn't realise. 

"Well we have to take her somewhere." Natasha pleaded to the man. She just wanted to get Charlie to a safe place so that she could tend to her wounds.

Steve thought for a second before getting up, "I think I know a place." 

Steve picked Charlie up, bridal style, and walked back in the direction of their 'borrowed' car. They had to make sure that they weren't spotted by the HYDRA agents that had been left to make sure that they didn't come back, so the walked on the edge of the forest.

Once they got back to the car, which miraculously hadn't been damaged, Steve placed Charlie in the back seat. Natasha, wanting to be as close to Charlie as possible, sat in one of the back seats with the brunette's head resting on her lap. Natasha stroked her hair and soothingly told Charlie reassurances that she would be okay. 

-

Steve was still carrying Charlie as they walked up to the house. He was trying not to attract attention, but that was pretty hard when you were carrying an unconscious, bloody woman and a battered and bruised women was limping behind you. 

Natasha knocked on the door of the house, "You sure he's gonna help us?" 

"If he doesn't then I don't know what to do." Steve honestly answered.

A couple of seconds later a Steve and Natasha could see a person walk to the door through the glass. The man opened the door and looked puzzled at the three people on his door step, one of whom was out for the count. "Hey man," he looked worriedly at the woman in Steve's arms.

"I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." Steve pleaded with the man.

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Natasha added from behind Steve.

The man looked between the trio, "Not everyone." He then stepped back and let them through the door. 

Immediately, Steve placed the injured women on the couch so that Natasha could look at her injuries. "I need all the medical supplies you have and multiple cloths." Natasha informed the man and he rushed into the kitchen to get what she needed.

He came back and gave Natasha what she wanted, Steve and him leaving the living room so that Nat could focus. She wet the cloth and wiped all the blood away from Charlie's face, showing her the gash through her eyebrow. It would need stitches but Natasha didn't have the equipment to do it there so she just  bandaged it up.

She then looked at the brunettes leg which was still losing a lot of blood. She tore a square of Charlie's leggings off so that she could see the wound. It had gone quite far into the leg and Natasha was nowhere near qualified enough to perform whatever surgery that the injury would inevitably need. So she pressed a few cloths on the wound and then wrapped another bandage round her leg, that would do for the meantime.